Methods of fabricating ICs typically include a front-end sequence of processing, in which various electrical devices such as transistors are formed in a semiconductor substrate, and a back-end sequence of processing, generally including forming alternating layers of dielectric material and patterned conductive material (typically metal) with conductive vias or other techniques being used to interconnect the metal layers to form a three-dimensional wiring structure that connects electrical devices to other electrical devices and to terminals of the IC.
Capacitors are used in IC systems for a variety of purposes. In many instances, it is desirable to incorporate (integrate) a capacitor in the IC chip. A simple approach is to form two conductive plates with an intervening dielectric; however, this consumes a relatively large area for the capacitance obtained. One technique for increasing the capacitance of a given area is to use multiple conductive plates, each conductive plate separated from the proximate plate(s) by dielectric. Further techniques use conducting strips, also called conductive lines, conductive fingers, or conductive traces that are alternately connected to the first and second capacitor terminals (nodes). Sidewall coupling between the conductive strips provides capacitance. Layers of conducting strips, either offset or arranged in vertical congruency, can be added to further increase the capacitance of an integrated capacitor structure.
One capacitor has a number of conductive strips in successive layers connected to the first node alternating with an equal number of conductive strips connected to the second node of the integrated capacitor. The conductive strips are offset a half cell on successive layers, so that a conductive strip connected to the first node has conductive strips connected to the second node above and on both sides of it. Providing an equal number of conductive strips in a layer for each node balances the coupling of each node to the substrate, which is desirable in some applications, but undesirable in others, such as switching applications where it is desirable to have less coupling at one node. In order to reduce coupling to the substrate, a thick layer of silicon dioxide is used between the substrate and the first layer of conductive strips. This may be difficult to integrate in a standard CMOS fabrication sequence, and might require additional steps to be added to the standard process flow. The overlapping parallel conductive strips are connected at their ends using buss strips that consume additional surface area.
Another approach to providing an integrated capacitor is to have conductive strips in a layer connected to alternate nodes of the capacitor with overlapping conductive strips connected to the same node. This forms essentially a curtain of conductive strips and interconnecting vias connected to the first node of the capacitor with adjacent curtains of conductive strips and interconnecting vias connected to the second node. Overlapping conductive strips connected to the same node avoids the lost surface area associated with buss strips; however, inter-layer capacitance is reduced because the upper strip is connected to the same node as the lower strip. This effect is somewhat obviated because, as critical dimensions shrink, inter-strip capacitance becomes more dominant than inter-layer capacitance. In other words, the dielectric layer separation between successive metal layers becomes increasingly greater than the dielectric separation between conductive strips with decreasing critical dimension.
It is generally desirable that integrated capacitors have high specific capacitance; however, manufacturability and quality factor (“Q factor”) is also a concern in many instances. One manufacturability concern is controlling the final capacitance value of an integrated capacitor, both within a large IC, across a wafer, and lot-to-lot.
Thus, integrated capacitors manufacturable to provide a consistent capacitance value are desired. It is further generally desired that integrated capacitors have high capacitance per unit area, low loss (resistance), and low self-inductance, which improves high-frequency applications by increasing self-resonant frequency and the quality of capacitor circuits. In some applications, it is further desirable to shield integrated capacitors from electrical noise.